Brain tumour patients' use of social media for disease management: Current practices and implications for the future

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The role of social media in disease management is evolving. We aimed to define current use of social media for patients with primary brain tumours. METHODS: This was a single-centre cross-sectional prospective study; a questionnaire was administered on electronic tablets to patients in the Outpatient Department of Royal Melbourne Hospital. RESULTS: Of the 201 participants, 55.7 % were female and 61.2 % were aged 30-59 years. The Internet was used by 84.5 % of participants, 70.6 % of those used social media. This included social networking sites (33.1 %), wikis (28.1 %) and blogs (14.0 %) to access information, for communication or for interaction related to their brain tumour. Par..